Hey JC,

This boat is designed for playing in surf, so you want to wear the thing rather than sit inside. With a smaller cockpit opening you have better purchase with your knees and should be easier to padd out for a really snug fit. If she does use the boat for playing in surf she'll be using lots of body english to controll the boat and will thankful for the smaller opening. If she'll never use it for play you could enlarge the cockpit but make sure you size it to fit common spray skirt sizes.

   Eric, thanks for the info, that's what I needed to know.

 JC